<div dir="ltr"><div>Folks,</div><div><br></div><div>ParaView 4.0.1 is now available for download</div><div>(<a href="http://paraview.org/paraview/resources/software.php">http://paraview.org/paraview/resources/software.php</a>). For those looking to checkout the source</div>
<div style>from the git repository, the tag name is "v4.0.1" (or simply use the "release" branch).</div><div>This release marks the first change in the major version number since 2007. Unlike the change</div>
<div>from 2 to 3, however, this release is not a major departure from the 3 series, but marks a</div><div>milestone in the gradual progression of ParaView UI and framework since 2007.</div><div>These notes highlight some of the major enhacements in this version that</div>
<div>addresses over 100 issues since the most recent release</div><div>(<a href="http://paraview.org/Bug/changelog_page.php">http://paraview.org/Bug/changelog_page.php</a>). ParaView 4.0.1 is based on VTK 6.0</div><div>and hence includes all the fixes and enhancements that went into the VTK 6.0</div>
<div>release. (If you're wondering what happened to 4.0.0: we nabbed an issue as the binaries</div><div>were being built for 4.0.0 and hence we decided to put out 4.0.1 instead).</div><div><br></div><div><b>Enhancements for Visualizing Multi-block Datasets</b></div>
<div>This release introduces a new way for interacting with multi-block datasets,</div><div>making it easier to change display parameters such as visibility, color, and</div><div>opacity for multi-block datasets. Using the Multi-Block Inspector, users can now</div>
<div>specify such properties on a per-block basis. By treating the multi-block</div><div>hierarchy as a basic scene-graph, properties specifications can be inherited,</div><div>thus avoiding the need to explicitly specify overrides for all blocks.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Block properties can also be changed using the context menu in the 3D view. By</div><div>selecting multiple blocks, one can change properties for all the selected blocks</div><div>using the context menu. Refer to this blog post to get started</div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/posts/view/503">http://www.kitware.com/blog/posts/view/503</a>).</div><div><br></div><div><b>Enhancements to the Properties Panel</b></div><div>The Properties panel has been undergoing changes in the past few releases. This</div>
<div>release includes further cleanups, bug-fixes and enhancements including a newer</div><div>and cleaner look for the Properties panel with the ability to group widgets</div><div>based on functionality. The plugin framework has now been extended to enable</div>
<div>users to add custom widgets for the new properties panel. Refer to this blog</div><div>post covering how to effectively use the new panel</div><div>(<a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/491">http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/491</a>). Developers are referred to ParaView</div>
<div>Wiki (<a href="http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Properties_Panel">http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Properties_Panel</a>) for additional</div><div>details.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Extended annotations with mathtext</b></div>
<div>One of the most requested features on ParaView User Voice (<a href="http://paraview.uservoice.com">http://paraview.uservoice.com</a>)</div><div>was the ability to add mathematical markup to annotation text. ParaView can now</div>
<div>use the equation rendering support in the matplotlib package to generate</div><div>mathematical equations in selected text fields. The support for mathtext was</div><div>added in 3.98 and has been expanded in this release to include chart titles,</div>
<div>scalar bar title and labels, along with text sources. ParaView binaries come</div><div>bundled with matplotlib. Siimply use $<math-text>$ as the text to use. Anything</div><div>containing the $...$ symbols will be treated as math-text and rendered using</div>
<div>matplotlib. Refer to this blog post (<a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/509">http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/509</a>).</div><div><br></div><div><b>Exporting vector graphics</b></div><div>One of the most requested features on ParaView User Voice</div>
<div>(<a href="http://paraview.uservoice.com">http://paraview.uservoice.com</a>) was to add support for vector graphics. With</div><div>this release, it is now possible to export scenes from 3D views and charts as</div><div>
postscript, eps, pdf, or svg vector graphics. All text and annotations such as</div><div>scalar bars, cube-axes, and curves in charts are exported as vector graphics,</div><div>thus ensuring crisp reproduction for publications. 3D surfaces and volumes,</div>
<div>however, must remain embedded as a rasterized image in the resulting output</div><div>file. Refer to this blog post for more details</div><div>(<a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/508">http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/508</a>).</div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Completely redesigned ParaViewWeb</b></div><div>Using Web-based technologies for 3D interactive visualization is now easier than</div><div>ever before with the totally redesigned ParaViewWeb. ParaViewWeb is a collection</div>
<div>of components that enables the use of ParaView's visualization and data analysis</div><div>capabilities within Web applications and is now simply a part of ParaView source</div><div>(and binary) packages. Using the latest HTML 5.0 based technologies, such as</div>
<div>WebSocket, and WebGL, ParaViewWeb enables communication with a ParaView server</div><div>running on a remote visualization node or cluster using a lightweight JavaScript</div><div>API. Using this API, Web applications can easily embed interactive 3D</div>
<div>visualization components. Application developers can write simple Python scripts</div><div>to extend the server capabilities including creating custom visualization</div><div>pipelines. Updated documentation and examples coming soon, so stay tuned.</div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Enhancement to CoProcessing Modules</b></div><div>ParaView’s CoProcessing support has undergone several usability improvements</div><div>with the ability to build adapters externally, and cleanups to the Python</div>
<div>coprocessing modules and scripts. Additional details will soon be available in</div><div>form a Catalyst/CoProcessing Users Guide in the near future.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Improvements to Scalar Bar (Color Legend)</b></div>
<div>We have added several new enhancements to scalar bar in this release. Besides</div><div>general improvements in the appearance and label rendering, the scalar bar now</div><div>has the ability to accept MathText (similar to LaTeX) for the title, subtitle,</div>
<div>and annotation text. Similar to including MathText in chart titles and text</div><div>sources in previous release, any text that enclosed within dollar ($) signs,</div><div>($...$) will be presumed to be MathText. This requires Python support with</div>
<div>matplotlib available, which is included in the distributed binaries. You can now</div><div>include Greek letters and other math symbols in your legend.</div><div><br></div><div>Another new feature is that colormaps may now be marked to indicate that their</div>
<div>domains are ratio or interval-scaled (i.e., continuous, as in previous versions</div><div>of ParaView) or categorical (also called nominal). Categorical colormaps are not</div><div>shown as a continuous range of colors but as a discrete set of color swatches.</div>
<div>You may set the text to accompany each value in the Annotations tab of the color</div><div>legend editor. Arrays that hold categorical data (where there are no more than</div><div>32 unique values stored across all array entries) will automatically have</div>
<div>annotations added when you open the color legend editor. When switching a</div><div>colormap between ratio and categorical modes, the color set-points in the</div><div>continuous color bar are used as the colors to assign to categorical values; the</div>
<div>default blue-to-red colormap has only 2 color set-points, so if you switch from</div><div>this preset to a categorical colormap, you will see only 2 color swatches: red</div><div>and blue. However, another new feature is that several categorical colormap</div>
<div>presets have been added, including the Brewer palettes. You may wish to choose</div><div>one of these presets (which will automatically switch the colormap to</div><div>categorical mode).</div><div><br></div><div><b>Documentation</b></div>
<div>Starting with this release, we will now be providing online documentation for</div><div>the Python and JavaScript API along with the C++ API online. The documentation</div><div>can be accessed from</div><div><a href="http://www.paraview.org/paraview/help/api-documentation.html">http://www.paraview.org/paraview/help/api-documentation.html</a>.</div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Nightly binaries</b><br></div><div>For users interested into trying out the latest and greatest developments for</div><div>ParaView as the development team works on them without building from source,</div>
<div>they can download the nightly builds from the ParaView download page</div><div>(<a href="http://paraview.org//paraview/resources/software.php">http://paraview.org//paraview/resources/software.php</a>).</div><div><br>
</div><div>As always, we look forward to your feedback (<a href="http://paraview.uservoice.com">http://paraview.uservoice.com</a>).</div><div>Also stay tuned to the Kitware Blog (<a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/">http://www.kitware.com/blog/</a>) for more</div>
<div>details on Catalyst and ParaViewWeb.</div><div><br></div><div style><i>The ParaView Team</i></div></div>